The atmospheric corona is a well-known diffraction phenomenon, typically seen as colored rings surrounding the Sun or Moon. In many respects, Fraunhofer diffraction provides a good explanation of the corona. As the angular sizes of the corona's rings are inversely proportional to the radius, r, of the spherical particles causing the corona, it should be easy to estimate the particle size from o...

A series-form expression for the individual diffracted field of a general annular ring is derived from the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld diffraction integral. It can be used for the accurate and fast simulation of any diffractive focusing element composed of concentric transparent rings. We present a comprehensive analysis, based on the leading term and the linear superposition principle, of the focusing...

We use Fraunhofer diffraction theory and meterological data to determine the nature of cloud-particle distributions and the mean particle sizes required for interpreting photographs of coronas and iridescence in mountain wave clouds. Traditional descriptions of coronas and iridescence usually explain these optical phenomena as diffraction by droplets of liquid water. Our analysis shows that the...

The problem of description a wave field generating by system coherent point sources is considered. This discussed for two well-known approximations, the Fresnel and Fraunhofer patterns, correspondingly. It shown, that validity both approximations has to contain dimensionless small parameters. First them parameter area second one corresponding observation area. In framework pattern Laue conditio...

We have investigated the optical properties of surface-micromachined polycrystalline silicon reflectors within the visible spectral range at five different wavelengths. The measurement results of the reflectivity of various microreflectors at four different incident angles (20 , 30 , 45 , and 60 ) are presented. Optical properties of microreflectors realized using the multiuser MEMS process (MU...

A scattering model involving complete polarization information for arbitrarily oriented hexagonal columns and plates is developed on the basis of the ray tracing principle which includes contributions from geometric reflection and refraction and Fraunhofer diffraction. We present a traceable and analytic procedure for computation of the scattered electric field and the associated path length fo...

Modern optical telescopes are giving us unprecedented imaging of the Universe in order to probe into the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Large optical telescopes require complex optical systems—often involving multiple lenses and mirrors. Light diffraction patterns on the focal planes influence imaging resolution, so a good understanding of diffraction is required to ensure high precisio...